Looking for a reliable transfer company? We had a good experience. . .

Lola, Thank you for the information. I bookmarked their website for future reference.

Lola, I hope your family realized what you did to save their day ! A genius move and I am so glad you found a reliable service. Thanks for sharing about them, I am definitely bookmarking this in case of future need !

I too am bookmarking this information. A seasoned traveler like yourself knows how to not panic, access the situation, pivot, make a quick decision, and act on it. Kudos to you.

You would help even more folks if you included the town names in your title. This would help the clunky search function here in the Forum. This type if info is invaluable ! Thanks so much!

Pat, the transfer was from Brescia to Desenzano but that particular route should not be necessary any more, as the train line was only closed on weekends for track work, and that has been finished. So the exact details are not relevant. The company FindTransfers will try to arrange a private car just about anywhere in Europe, from what I can tell, so my recommendation should be useful in a more general way than just this area of Italy.

Exactly. The whole point is that they are a broker who will look to see who could provide you this service wherever you might be (have I understood correctly Lola?).

Ok, thanks so much, Lola.

That is correct, Kim. And to answer your concern, yes, everyone was very appreciative of the private transfer. And I felt very lucky that I was able to find a reliable service in this situation.

It was a long travel day, which I expected, but we encountered some difficulties on the last two legs that made the private van all better. We started our day at a sweet lakefront hotel in Weggis, at the base of Rigi, near Luzern. We caught the first boat southbound to the end of the lake at Flüelen, where we transferred to the scenic Treno Gottardo heading toward Italy. The boat ride and train were each 2-2.5 hours, and very enjoyable—-easy, relaxing, and spectacular.

To reach our destination, we had to leave the Treno Gottardo at Bellinzona and catch a southbound IC train to Milano Centrale. And here things started to go awry. The incoming train was quite late and very long, and we had trouble finding our coach. When the warning whistle blew, we boarded the nearest car and tried to work our way through the train to our reserved seats. At this point we discovered that the last half of the train, where we were, was not going to Milan—they split the train at some point with the rear cars going to Lugano.

There was a locked door between the sections, so we could not walk through the train to the front cars. Luckily there was one more stop before the split, so we all got off and literally ran to re-board a foreward car. We never did find our reserved seats—-we could not move forward to the right coach as the aisles were blocked with huge suitcases. No conductor came through to check tickets and make people move their luggage out of the aisles.

Our train arrived at Mikano Centrale late but we still had 15 minutes to connect to our next train, a Regionale bound for Verona (but with the bus link). It was waiting on the adjacent platform and not open for boarding yet, so we had a chance to walk down and find a car with no one else waiting, and were the first to board when they did open. The kids wanted to sit upstairs so we did. And then the train proceed to fill up, and by the time we departed people were standing in the aisles. It was a hot and stuffy ride.

All this is why we were very happy to have that private van!